


The World Changes, We Do Not

by Sparrow (hersilentlanguage)



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff, Humor, Idiots in Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Malvie (minor mention), Underage Drinking, United States of Auradon (Disney), minor angst (blink and you miss it)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24782755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hersilentlanguage/pseuds/Sparrow
Summary: A really fluffy, humorous Jaylos oneshotlooselyinspired(*) by a popular Tumblr post:"two vampire friends lying on the floor getting drunk and describing each other because they can’t use mirrors don’t even try to tell me that isn’t adorable"(*) This story does not feature any actual vampires, but it suredoesfeature two idiots lying on the floor, being adorable.
Relationships: Jay/Carlos de Vil
Comments: 16
Kudos: 70





	The World Changes, We Do Not

**Author's Note:**

> I saw the Tumblr post quoted in the summary and I just couldn't resist writing this. I'm really in the mood to write fluff and crack to deal with the state of the world, so that's what I'm here to deliver. I hope you all enjoy it! I had so much fun with this... <3
> 
> Huge thank you to the lovely @telli1206 (Tumblr/AO3) for jumping in last minute to suggest a title, which _Interview with a Vampire_ fans may recognize from this quote: _“The world changes, we do not, therein lies the irony that kills us.”_
> 
>  **CW:** (1) This story features underage drinking; related to that, there is some consensual kissing that occurs under the influence of alcohol. (2) There is a minor mention of parental abuse toward the end (this is the reason for the minor angst tag). It's padded in fluff, but it does signify a temporary tonal shift in the story, so be aware of that.

There were, of course, rules in Auradon about underage drinking—especially of the sort that might occur in a dorm room at some untold hour on a Saturday night.

But _technically,_ those rules pertained to very particular things that came in cans and bottles, and not so much to the sort of thing only an Isle kid would think to make from the crop of “decorative” fruit trees that tapped invitingly at their windows.

Evie didn’t much care for anything made in a bathroom these days, which Carlos and Jay figured as the reason Mal kept canceling their plans to indulge in the stuff. Something about lips and what they wouldn’t be doing if Mal’s breath smelled “like that” in the morning. (They’d only heard bits and pieces of the argument.)

Thinking on it, Jay couldn’t help but snigger as he downed the last of his drink. Mal was gonna be so mad—well, more like jealous—when she realized they’d given up waiting on her to enjoy this stuff; and sure, he _could_ remind her it’d been more than a month since the last “random inspection,” so best to play it safe, but…

Yeah, no, it’d be a lot more fun to rub it in her face that she’d missed out tonight.

 _Sucks to be whipped,_ he thought, smirking to himself as he rolled onto his back, one hand clutching an empty plastic bottle to his chest. He and Carlos had managed to swipe a few out of the recycling bin without anyone noticing. They’d stripped the labels, washed them clean, and filled them up with their own little concoction.

Jay took a minute to just lay there and appreciate the warm, cloud-like feeling that had permeated every part of him. He was totally relaxed, content to close his eyes, take in the music—well, more like the muffled humming sound that reverberated through the carpet, now and then featuring a chorus of totally incoherent lyrics.

Letting his head flop to one side, Jay arched his neck to get a look at Carlos. He smiled lazily at seeing he was still sprawled out like a starfish about a foot away, lying facedown on the carpet, lost in his own humming. He’d been like that a while, and Jay had been content to leave him to it, except… he had an idea.

“Hey, ‘Losss…” (The humming silenced.) “D’you wanna play?”

“Play wha’?” asked Carlos, slowly raising his head off the floor to squint at Jay.

Jay drummed his fingernails against the bottle, like he was thinking about it; then, with a glint in his eyes, he replied, all sing-song, “A gaaaame…”

Carlos propped himself up on his elbows, looking suspicious. “What _kinda_ game?”

“Dunno,” said Jay with a laugh, now peering up into the mouth of the empty bottle like it were a telescope through which to view the ceiling. “Think I invented it,” he added, after a moment, “but soooo… you wanna play?”

“Okay,” said Carlos, without really thinking about it.

Grinning, Jay rolled onto his side and set the bottle down between them. “Okay!” He took on a suddenly serious expression, though it wasn’t very convincing. In his best storytelling voice, he began, “Imagine… we’re us, but _vampires—”_

Carlos snorted, causing Jay to stop and pout at him.

“Whaaat? I’m _liiistening…”_

(Jay still pouted.)

Rolling his eyes, Carlos dragged himself across the carpet a short distance, settling back down when he was close enough to slap Jay’s forearm, affecting the look of a drowsy seal begging for fish. “C’monnn,” he prompted. “We’re _vampires…_ and?”

Jay’s smile returned, at least in the way his eyes shone. It _did_ sound kinda funny now that Carlos was saying it; but still, he _tried_ to explain it seriously: “Well… okay, ‘cause you know how vampires have no refraction?”

“Reflection,” Carlos corrected automatically, even as he nodded.

“Yeah, so—they can’t use _mirrors_ ,” Jay continued. “Not even, like, _magic_ mirrors.”

“But what about water?”

Jay shook his head.

“…Eyeballs?” Carlos leaned forward, struggling to maintain eye contact with Jay for several seconds before he collapsed back onto his belly, giggling to himself.

 _“No,”_ Jay insisted, his voice laced with laughter. He swatted playfully at Carlos’ head, barely brushing the top of his curls. “They just gotta _describe_ each other.”

Carlos looked up at that, his freckled cheeks flushed pink with amusement. “Mm, ‘kayyy, so…” He propped his chin in one hand, smiling at Jay. “That’s the game?”

“Um—yup!” Jay decided, angling the bottle to point at Carlos. “You gotta start.”

Carlos rolled his eyes, but made no complaint. He was quiet for the better part of a minute, actually—his eyes intense on Jay as he chewed his bottom lip in thought.

When Jay started to say something, Carlos shushed him, narrowing his eyes.

Jay breathed out a dramatic sigh, and after another several seconds passed, he settled for making strange faces at Carlos, trying to win at making him laugh.

Carlos’ focus broke with a smile, then an honest giggle. “I was _gonna_ say you were pretty,” he mumbled, folding his arms and half-burying his face in them, leaving only his eyes to shine through the shadow of curls hanging over his forehead.

Jay flashed a grin, then flopped onto his belly. He folded his arms to mirror Carlos’ pose, bringing his head down so they were at eye-level. _“How_ pretty?” he asked, the edges of his grin still showing in the fullness of his cheeks. “Prettier than E?”

“Pretty dumb,” said Carlos, a wicked glint in his eye.

Huffing, Jay unfolded his arms, and reached over to flick Carlos’ arm. _“Rude,_ and also mean, _and_ you’re lying. That’s against the rules, so that means I just won.”

Carlos opened his mouth to protest that Jay hadn’t even _played_ yet, but he was cut off by Jay shaking his head and stubbornly insisting, “I won. That’s the rules.”

“Fiiiine, whatever.” Carlos squinted at Jay, who had taken to pretending that their carpet, bland and dusty, was the most fascinating thing in the entire room. “Play again?” asked Carlos, averting his eyes before Jay could process the question.

“Okay,” Jay agreed, smiling a little when Carlos chanced another look at him.

“Okay,” Carlos echoed. He watched as Jay went to spin the bottle towards himself; impulsively, he reached out, laying a hand over top of Jay’s. “Can I start again?”

Jay blinked up at him, then simply nodded.

Slowly, Carlos withdrew his hand, and shifted into a cross-legged position. “Your hair’s brown,” he said abruptly, fidgeting with the hem of his shorts. “It’s, like… really long, and… I dunno, I just like it.” His cheeks pinked to see Jay’s widening smile. He’d started to sit up while Carlos was talking, and now he was leaning forward with the intensity of a child invested in a _really_ good bedtime story.

Carlos took a deep breath, then glanced down, feeling embarrassed to continue.

“I like… your stars,” Jay murmured, and before Carlos could even lift his chin, Jay’s hand had appeared in his line of sight. He poked a few times at Carlos’ freckled cheeks, earning himself a confused and slightly put-out look as their eyes met again.

“My what?” asked Carlos, absently reaching up to pat at his own cheek.

Jay chuckled, grabbing for Carlos’ arm, cupping it in one warm palm while, with his free hand, he began to trace out invisible patterns from freckle-to-freckle. “Your _stars_ ,” he repeated, glancing up through his eyelashes to see the realization dawn on Carlos’ face.

“Oh, um…” Carlos suppressed a shiver at Jay’s touch. “My—my freckles?”

“Mm’hmm,” was all Jay said before he leaned down to kiss Carlos’ arm.

Carlos didn’t know what to say—or do—just then, having always quietly resented (and sometimes even _hated_ ) the “spots” that his mother so loved. Not that she ever loved _his_ spots the same as those of the Dalmatian fur she coveted. They weren’t to her taste, being brown instead of black.

She’d made sure to try and darken a few over the years with her cigarettes; but he had never quite scarred the way she’d hoped, which was probably the only reason she’d stopped being _particular_ about where and for how long she jabbed the damned things into his arms—the very place Jay’s lips were lingering.

Carlos felt suddenly very sober, like all the alcohol had leaked from his blood.

When Jay straightened up to look at him, he found Carlos’ expression unreadable. He swallowed down the nauseous feeling that his “liquid courage” had washed away some unspoken line between the two of them. He, too, felt a sudden sobriety as he pulled his hands away, letting Carlos’ arm fall limp; then, clearing his throat, he said quietly, needing to be certain, “Sorry, should I not have…?”

“No, s’okay,” said Carlos, a little too quickly. He chewed at his lip as he thought on what he was about to do. (It was a risk. It could change everything between them. It might even seem impulsive, but in fact—he’d wanted to do this since _forever.)_

Jay’s heart stuttered as he watched Carlos shift onto his knees, looking like he was about to stand and leave, put some distance between them—a way of saying, _‘I’m not mad, I just don’t like you that way.’_

Instead, Carlos tipped forward, braced his hands on Jay’s shoulders, and stared fully into his eyes for the split-second before he pressed a soft kiss to Jay’s lips.

It didn’t last long, since Carlos drew back to study Jay, wanting to be sure he wasn’t about to get shoved away or snapped at for his boldness. None of that happened, of course. He found that Jay was just… staring at him, lips half-parted as if to speak.

Jay didn’t say anything, though—at least not until he began to speak with his hands, threading fingers through Carlos’ curls with one, and taking a fistful of his shirt with the other, tugging him forward so suddenly that Carlos lost his balance and fell into Jay, who—kind of accidentally on purpose—toppled backwards.

This ended with Carlos and Jay both laughing into their sloppy second kiss as they lay there on the carpet, both a little dizzy from the rush of alcohol and each other.

“Hey,” Jay murmured after a while in silence, idly combing his fingers through Carlos’ hair, enjoying the warmth of the body still sprawled atop his own.

“Hmm?” asked Carlos, not opening his eyes. He had his cheek pressed against Jay’s collarbone, and though it was far from the first time they had touched like this, it was different now, all at once, in a way that felt somehow… _inevitable._

Jay’s voice rumbled down through his ribs when he spoke again, his voice laced with humour enough to obscure the thread of genuine insecurity in asking, “D’you really think I’m pretty, ‘Los?”

Carlos cracked one eye open, then slowly raised his head, resting his chin on Jay’s chest, staring him down with sleep-heavy eyes. “The prettiest,” he said seriously.

Smiling, Jay arched his neck to place a gentle kiss on the tip of Carlos’ nose.

“Can I tell Evie you think I’m the prettiest?”

“No, but you can tell Chad.”

“Deal.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated! I'd love to hear your thoughts, but no pressure. <3
> 
> P.S. Feel free to drop in and say hello if you're on Tumblr: [@hersilentlanguage](http://hersilentlanguage.tumblr.com) :)


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